As a recently reborn climbing junkie, my relentless pursuit of new
climbing activities and partners brought me to scan the WWW, where I
found my Sierra Club chapter had a Peak Climbing Section. A couple
issues of Scree digested, I resolved to join the first PCS expedition
I could get my boots on. I contacted Debbie Benham, who was leading a
trip to Mt. Winchell on October 4-5. After a lengthy game of
email-tag, all systems appeared to be GO for my first peak- but....
An unfortunate business trip called me away to Colorado on Thursday,
from which I could not hope to be back in town sooner than about 10pm
on Friday. Let's see: 8 hour nighttime drive, no sleep, high
altitude.... my common sense, usually lacking, got the better of me
and I withdrew from the climb.

I figured I could do pretty well, however, by staying in Colorado for
the weekend and hiking something around there. I hunted out the
nearby Rocky Mountain NP for something I could conceivably do for a
day hike, and found the 14,255 foot Long's Peak. Located a mere 7.5
miles from a state highway turnoff trailhead, Long's would do. I
obtained some good trail beta from a colleague and the local REI, and
I was sold!

I awoke Saturday morning about 5am and checked out of my Fort Collins
hotel (roughing it!), and arrived at the trailhead (9405 feet) about
7am, quite surprised to find the parking lot nearly full! Upon
embarking on the trail, I became somewhat nervous after reading signs
"Long's Summit currently technical", and "Ice axe and crampon use
required" and spotting several hikers with ice axes strapped to their
packs. Well, I figured I'd make it as far as I could without.

The first mile or so was a beautiful hike up a well worn trail
through alpine forest, occasionally winding near the Roaring Fork
creek, as the newly risen sun shone golden through the trees. The
trail soon broke above the timberline and I was greeted by a
spectacular view of the Diamond, Longs' "legendary" 1000 foot
sheer vertical face.

I was amazed at the popularity of this trail; by about 9am I had
passed at least 25 hikers, and arrived at the climbers' base camp,
evidenced by the several tents scattered across a huge boulder field.
An awkward, yet extremely welcome, sight across the boulder field was
a small, open air restroom facility. Simply put, it was the most
scenic "relief" I have ever experienced.

By 9:30 I had crossed the remainder of the boulder field and
reached the Keyhole, a near tunnel over the ridge between Long's
and Storm Peak. Passing through the Keyhole, I stepped into the
shade of the north face for the ascent, not to mention a
spectacular view of the Rocky Mountain NP backcountry, replete
with towering snow-capped peaks and lush alpine lakes. From there
the trail, marked by red & yellow circles painted on rock, ran
fairly flat along the west face of the peak until it reached the
"Trough". The trough was a long, steep, class 3 scramble over
rock & ice, which I assumed was the section for which the signs at
the trailhead had recommended axes. I was able to scale most of
the trough along the jutting aretes of large boulders, and soon
reached the "Notch", through which the trail passed back into the
morning sunlight of the South face, and along the "Narrows".
Considering the number of people I had passed on my way to the
summit, it stands to reason that every section of this climb has a
name attached. I was continually astounded at the popularity of
the hike.

The Narrows is a short, narrow ledge, with long, high angle slabs
above and below. Don't slip! Finally, the "Homestretch", a class
3 slab climb, stretched to the summit, which I topped at about
11am. The top of Long's is huge: a flat, bouldered mesa about the
size of a football field. I signed the register (my first!) and
stood atop the tallest boulder while turning the requisite 360
degrees to soak in the view.

Unfortunately, I couldn't stay long, as I inevitably began to feel
the effects of exerting myself a full mile higher than I had ever
been before. Almost immediately after I began the downclimb, the
winds whipped up ferociously. Gusts in the Notch and the Keyhole
reached about 80-100 mph! On my way back down the trough, I
passed about 20 climbers on their way up, some amazed to see me
clambering down wearing shorts and no gloves. Someone even
offered to loan me their extra long underwear for the downclimb,
which I refused as I still had a couple extra layers in my pack!

The remainder of the downclimb was only eventful in that, in my
incoherent, nauseated state, I was nearly knocked off my feet
several times by the buffetting winds. I reached the trailhead
about 3:30pm, regained my appetite and devoured the rest of my
provisions. Sadly, there was no time to relax as I then had to
speed off to the airport for the flight home.

In closing, hopefully this trip report will serve as my
introduction to the PCS! I'm looking forward to meeting some of
the personalities who have lit up this mailing list with lots of
helpful facts & opinions (not to mention the SPAM-ish nature of
a lot of the banter). Hope to see you at a section meeting, or
even better, a PCS climb soon!